by Lacey Legend
When he eventually began exploring my mouth with his tongue, I bit back a quiet moan, tightening my arm around his shoulders. Despite the fact that a slight buzz I’d gotten from sipping wine at dinner earlier had completely left me, I was now beginning to feel decidedly tipsy in the most pleasant possible way. I was honestly beginning to feel almost borderline drunk, incredibly lightheaded and goofy-feeling, although just from Fed’s kissing alone. He, too, seemed to be experiencing something of a pleasant head rush, if a few quiet grunts and groans he was beginning to make were any indication.
After a while, when our kiss began to intensify a bit further still, I got the idea that maybe we should break our kiss soon, or else we might be quickly veering into public indecency territory. Fed seemed to get this idea at about the same time, because he did very briefly break our kiss a few times, pulling his mouth from mine for periods of time no longer than a second or two. However, as if our mouths were magnets, his lips found mine right away again, as if he knew it would be wise to break our kiss at this point but just couldn’t quite yet force himself to do it.
It was actually a preteen girl who turned out to be the one who finally caused Fed and me to finally stop kissing. From somewhere not too far below the slowly descending gondola we were riding in, I heard the young girl’s squeaky, excited voice.
“Look up there! It’s Miss Jasmine! She’s my old babysitter and she’s kissing that man! She’s actually making out with him!”
Pulling away from Fed abruptly, I opened my eyes just in time to see the wide-eyed faces of four preteen girls, who were waiting in line for the Ferris wheel. I realized that it had been one of them, a girl named Megan, who’d done the exclaiming. About a year earlier, I’d babysat for her family on weekends when they’d lived a few buildings down from mine.
Fed’s and my gondola was now gliding near the line of waiting people, and as soon as it passed, ascending once again, the four preteen girls burst into giggles, and Megan made another exclamation.
“Did you guys see them? They were actually making out!”
I wasn’t that embarrassed by Megan, just more surprised to see her than anything. Nonetheless, I told Fed that I was sorry about all that.
“I used to babysit for the family of one of those girls, and if my memory serves me, if there’s one thing little Megan and her friends love, it’s loudly discussing people ‘making out’ and giggling about it. So…maybe we shouldn't give them anything else to giggle about.”
With his dark gray eyes twinkling in the bright, multi-colored lights running alongside the “arms” of the Ferris wheel, Fed said that that was probably a good idea, speaking in a low, husky sort of voice that immediately made me want to kiss him again. However, before I could act on this urge, he asked me if I still did any babysitting and if I liked it. I got the feeling that maybe he was less interested in this subject that he was just trying to distract himself from wanting to kiss me again, but that was fine. I was trying to distract myself, too.
For the next three or four minutes of the ride, I gave him a brief recap of my years as a weekend babysitter, and how much I missed the kids since Megan’s family and another family I had used to babysit for had moved away. Like I had all evening, I found Fed to be a very attentive listener and very easy to talk to. He was, in fact, almost too easy to talk to, because it wasn’t until the Ferris wheel started slowing to let people off that I realized that I hadn’t yet asked him if he liked kids like I had planned to. Although he’d made it clear to me the day before that he couldn’t see himself ever getting married, I was just curious to know if he thought his business career might prevent him from having kids, too.
After quickly wrapping up what I’d been saying about my time as a babysitter, I finally did ask him if he liked kids himself, and if he wanted any of his own someday. However, instead of appearing pleased that I was interested in his life like he was interested in mine, the question only seemed to make Fed uncomfortable, and he avoided my eyes when he responded.
“Well…I guess when it comes to kids, I feel the same way that I do about marriage. I just don’t think my career is ever going to allow me to have any kind of a family life.”
I wanted to ask Fed a few more questions, but just then, our gondola came to a stop at the bottom of the wheel. He opened the door and took my hand to help me out, prompting a wave of giggling from Megan and her friends, who were still standing at the front of the line. Near them, Megan’s mom stood with her phone to her ear, talking while kind of looking past the girls, seeming oblivious to their amusement and who was causing it.
While I soon sauntered past them holding Fed’s hand, I waved to the girls with my free hand, saying hi and asking if they were having a good time. They all nodded, saying yes or yeah, and then Megan turned the question back on me.
“Are you having a good time, Miss Jasmine?”
This comment prompted the loudest group giggling frenzy yet. Now past the group, I looked at Megan over my shoulder, fighting a little eye roll but smiling. “Yes, Megan. I’m having a very good time.”
While all the girls erupted in laughter yet again, I gave Fed’s hand a light squeeze, thinking that I was maybe having the best time I’d ever had on a date in my life.
The carnival was beginning to wind down, with a few ride operators shouting out “last call” for the night, but Fed and I weren’t quite ready to end the evening just yet. Earlier, he’d promised me that when we were done riding the Ferris wheel, he’d try to win me a stuffed animal from one of the baseball-throwing games. He was reasonably sure that he could, because he’d used to be a pitcher when he’d played baseball.
While we waited in line at one of the booths, he put an arm around my shoulders, pulling me close to him. In response, I kind of melted into the long, hard length of the side of his body, reveling in the feel of being wrapped in his safety and strength. In fact, I guessed that being held to the front of his body might just feel even better; and I regretted that there were so many people around, preventing a more intimate embrace, one that would be face-to-face, than the one we were already sharing. I knew one thing for sure, which was that I definitely didn’t want to prompt any more near-hysterical giggling from any preteen girls in the vicinity.
With so many people ahead of us, we were in line at the booth for quite a while, although I didn’t mind at all, and I got the feeling that Fed didn’t, either. While we talked and joked with each other about different things, I was starting to feel like I’d known him a lot longer than I actually had. I was also starting to feel like I definitely wanted our brand-new relationship to become a long-term thing.
When only one other couple remained ahead of us, I teased Fed by telling him not to worry if he couldn’t topple a glass milk jug to win me a stuffed animal. “If you can’t, you can’t, and that’s all there is to it. If that happens, then I’ll try to win one, because I actually have a pretty decent throwing arm. I’ll try my hardest not to embarrass you, though.”
He looked at me with his dark gray eyes twinkling. “All right. Ladies first, then…but whether you win a stuffed animal or not yourself, I’ll still win you one, because I promised you I would. I’ll try not to embarrass you, though…even though that might be a little difficult considering I’ve got a pretty decent throwing arm myself.”
“Is that a fact?”
Pulling me even a bit closer to him still, Fed fought a grin. “Yeah. That’s a fact. I have a decent enough throwing arm that I was always star pitcher on any team I was ever on, anyway.”
“Well, now I’m losing my nerve to pitch in front of you. I’m honestly not that great, and now I know I’ll probably just embarrass myself.”
With his eyes still twinkling, Fed shook his head. “No, you won’t.”
Right then, as we both shifted closer to the booth while the couple in front of us began to depart without having won anything, Fed’s eyes caught the light of numerous bright, clear bulbs lining the booth, and I noticed something. His eyes
weren’t really gray, at least not just gray. Within the dark charcoal color, vividly-colored flecks danced, flecks that could only be described as ocean blue. I’d never seen anything like it in my life. Fed’s eyes weren’t just unique; they were actually breathtaking. I’d hadn’t even known that ocean blue within coal was even an eye color found in nature.
Unable to take my eyes from his, I told Fed that his eyes were so beautiful, almost immediately feeling a little heat rise to my cheeks. “I mean…you probably already know that. You’ve probably heard that about your eyes a thousand times already.”
With the corners of his mouth twitching, he dipped his head and brushed his lips against mine. “I’ve heard it a few times…but I really liked hearing you say it.”
To my disappointment, the carnival barker in the booth announced it was our turn, preventing Fed from giving me another kiss.
Whether because my mind had been a little jumbled from the feel of his mouth on mine, or whether because my pitching arm wasn’t quite as strong as I’d thought, or whether because the game was horribly rigged, I didn’t end up knocking over even a single glass milk jug. In fact, despite the fact that I was throwing hard, I didn’t even make any of the jugs budge an inch.
After my sixth and final try, I spoke to Fed in a low voice while the barker collected the baseballs. “The game is definitely rigged. Some of the jugs are probably glued down.”
Right away, Fed began disproving this theory. A lower shelf held five large jugs in a row, and with his first five balls, he knocked them over, one by one, to the sounds of loud clapping and cheering from people in a long line behind us. With his sixth and final ball, he toppled a pyramid of glass jugs on the taller shelf, although toppled wasn’t even the exact right word for what he did. He more like exploded or destroyed the pyramid, sending all the jugs flying into a thin sheet of plywood behind them with a loud, collective bang.
Many people in the crowd behind us gasped; many others clapped and cheered; and the barker looked from the fallen jugs to Fed repeatedly, eyes wide, as if unable to believe what he’d just seen. When he finally began picking up the jugs, shaking his head, his eyes went wide again, and he held up one of the jugs, telling everyone to look at it. Down the middle of the thick glass was a large crack, probably where Fed’s final ball had made contact with it.
We ended up leaving the booth with one enormous stuffed teddy bear, which Fed carried, and four smaller teddy bears, which I held in my arms.
On our way to his car, I thanked Fed for the bears for the second time, but then said that if we saw any kids, maybe we could lighten our load a little bit. “I definitely want to keep one of the bears for myself, though…maybe one of these small ones. Just so I can remember this night.”
Smiling, Fed said he thought that giving some of the bears to kids was a really nice idea, and not a moment later, a group of kids, the perfect number of kids, in fact, came into view. It was Megan and her friends, although they weren’t giggling now, and one of them, a girl named Kylie, who, at nine, was the youngest in the group by about two years, was crying. If I remembered correctly from my babysitting days, her sister was Megan’s best friend, so she was often allowed to “tag along” with the older girls when they did fun things.
With her arm around Kylie’s shoulder, Megan’s mom explained that she’d stumbled getting off the Ferris wheel and had bonked her forehead. “I think she’ll be just fine once we get some ice on that bump, though. Right now, I think she’s just more worn out than anything. I know it’s way past her bedtime.”
Kylie’s eleven-year-old sister Taylor nodded with something of a smug look on her face. “Yup. It’s past her bedtime. Not mine, though. That’s because I’m not an absolute baby about everything.”
This comment made Kylie cry harder, and she and Taylor began sniping about who was an “absolute baby” and who wasn’t.
Before things could get too heated, Fed extended the massive, five-foot-tall teddy bear to Kylie, asking if having a giant teddy to hold might make her head feel better. “If you think so, he’s yours.”
Megan’s mom smiled and said thank you, and after wiping her eyes, sniffling, Kylie did the same, taking the bear from Fed. Soon he and I had distributed all but one of the smaller teddies to the other girls, who hugged their bears, giggling, all in good spirits again. Before leading the group in the direction of the parking lot, Megan’s mom thanked Fed and me, although I noticed that she was really looking at Fed alone while she did so, and she was also twirling her hair a little, as if she were more than a bit enamored of him. I really couldn’t blame her. He’d definitely been giving me the urge to twirl my hair all evening.
While we continued on to the car, I glanced over at Fed in the dim light. “You know, you really have a way with kids…and moms. I could tell Megan’s mom was checking you out a little, but not in a way that seemed like she recognized you or anything. Just in a way that seemed like she found you extremely hot…which you are.”
Fed grinned, squeezing my hand. “You think so?”
I grinned in return. “Yeah. I do.”
“Well, I can say that I definitely think the same about you.”
When we got in the car, he started it up, then looked over at me. “Where to now? Are you ready for me to drop you off at your apartment?”
“No. I mean…I’m ready to head back to my apartment, but no to just dropping me off.” I’d made a sudden decision, a decision to ask Fed something. “Do you want to drive us to my apartment and then come up for a cup of coffee? I just figure that before you drive back to your hotel, maybe you could use some caffeine.”
With his expression unreadable in the dim light, Fed hesitated just a second or two before answering my question. “Sure. I’d love to come up for a cup of coffee.”
Chapter8
Fed and I never had our coffee. I really had been intending on making some, not wanting our evening to be over just yet.
However, my apartment door had been closed behind us for all of about two seconds when I asked him to kiss me. Then, once he did, I made my second sudden decision of the night. I decided that even though I usually didn’t move quite so fast, I was going to sleep with him if things started heading in that direction, which they soon did. Freely-roaming hands and exploring tongues caused me to break our kiss just long enough to ask Fed to carry me down the hallway to my bedroom.
“If you want to, anyway.”
Judging by how fast he scooped me up in his strong arms, bringing his mouth to mine once again, he definitely did want to carry me down the hallway to my bedroom.
Once there, he set me down on my bed and switched on a lamp, but I switched it right back off, asking him if he wouldn’t mind some candles for lighting instead. He said candles would be just fine, so I told him to have a seat on the bed and I’d be right there.
“Just give me one quick second to find my lighter and light a few of the candles on my dresser.”
While I went about doing just that, taking my time, I realized that somehow, some kind of a spell had been broken. Some kind of a spell that had been making me feel uncharacteristically bold sexually. Now I just felt a little nervous for some reason, even though at the same time, I still definitely wanted to sleep with Fed. I maybe just felt a little self-conscious about I didn’t even know what, or anxious about whether or not we were going to be compatible with each other in bed.
Being that this had been how I’d felt before sleeping with each of my three serious ex-boyfriends, the only three men I’d ever slept with, I wasn’t really surprised by how I was feeling, instead just a little irritated with myself that I’d pulled myself out of the moment by pausing things to light the candles. Now I wished I’d just been content with the lamp and hadn’t bothered with any soft candlelight. Because now, standing in the glow of three dark red pillar candles of various heights and moving on to a fourth, I just felt somehow awkward about the thought of turning my attention from them back to Fed.
However, som
ewhat to my chagrin, there were only four candles to light, and once the fourth was burning brightly, making the red wax glow, I didn’t really know what else to do, which only increased my feeling of awkwardness. For some irritating reason, I just couldn’t turn and stroll right over to Fed on the bed right then. Apparently, my recent sexual boldness had officially turned into full sexual bashfulness.
Wondering just how sexually experienced he was himself, and wondering if he was going to mind a bedmate that certainly wasn’t extremely experienced, I opened a dresser drawer and began rifling around. “Just let me find one more candle, and then I’ll light it and be right over.”
“Okay.”
After locating a small pink jar candle in the dresser drawer, adding it to the red pillar candles, and lighting it, I found I just still wasn’t ready to turn around and face Fed. “I guess maybe I’ll try to find just one more candle.”
“All right…but to me, it looks like we already have plenty.”
With five now burning at once, filling the room with a fairly bright glow, we did certainly have plenty; there was no denying that.
Nonetheless, I began rummaging around in another drawer with my sexual bashfulness and nerves intensifying. “Maybe just one more candle, and then we should be good. And then maybe I’ll go get a vase of silk flowers to bring in here. Do you like flowers, Fed? I really do.”
“Jasmine.”
“Oh, look. Here’s another little jar candle.”
“Jasmine.”
Something about his voice made me finally turn around and look at him. “What is it?”
“Come here.”
Something about the two words he’d just spoken, such simple words yet unmistakably commanding when spoken together, had rekindled my sexual desire for him, and not just a little. The sight of him sitting on my bed, kind of leaning back a bit with his weight on his hands behind him, had also rekindled my sexual desire for him more than a bit.